Two protest detainees at risk of heavy sentences following staged security operation

Hengaw – Thursday, May 14, 2026

Iranian security institutions have transferred Omid Janami and Mostafa Saboktekin, two detainees arrested during protests earlier this year in Zarrin Shahr, Isfahan Province, to public locations in the city as part of what appears to be a new security-driven case fabrication, raising serious concerns over the risk of heavy sentences against them.

According to information received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, security forces transferred the two political prisoners to the streets of Zarrin Shahr on Wednesday, May 14, 2026, where teams affiliated with security institutions filmed staged reconstructions and recorded security-related scenarios.

Janami and Saboktekin, who are currently being held at Isfahan Central Prison (Dastgerd Prison), were arrested during the January 2026 protests. Eyewitnesses reported that a woman, whose identity remains under investigation by Hengaw, was also present during the transfer, and that government agents filmed all three individuals publicly in the streets.

The transfer of political prisoners to protest sites and the recording of staged scenes in public spaces has frequently preceded the broadcast of forced confessions and the issuance or implementation of heavy sentences, including the death penalty. Given the Iranian judiciary’s record in similar protest-related cases, there are serious concerns that these detainees could face severe punishments.

Hengaw Organization for Human Rights expresses deep concern over the safety and lives of these prisoners and stresses that any confession obtained under coercion, as well as any staged reconstruction conducted during detention and without legal representation, lacks legal validity. Hengaw calls on international institutions and the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran to take immediate action to halt Iran’s ongoing machinery of repression and executions.